They perform a vital role for the Clipper Race crews, but what exactly do
those who perform the mother watch do?

The muscles and sinews of the Clipper 70s might be on display on deck but the beating heart of these ocean-racing machines is tucked away below in the shape of the mother watch.

Though job roles and patterns differ across the 12 Clipper Race crews, the common feature is that each day a couple of team members dip out of 'sailing' the boat to take charge of the galley, produce three square meals a day and deal with all things domestic down below. Performances and results are scrutinised closely and dynamics measured. A mutinous atmosphere among a crew will often start with a ruck in the galley.

Despite the somewhat gender-specific title, it is a role shared equally between the entire crew, both male and female, with its popularity largely dependent on ambient conditions.

“When it was hot it was universally unpopular, when it was cold on deck it was popular, when you could sleep at night it was popular, when you were seasick it was unpopular,” said Hannah Richards, who sailed the entire 2011-12 edition.

“The idea with mother watch is that everyone takes their turn, and that you didn’t get the girls to do the washing up and the guys get to do the fun stuff. You do get some people, particularly older men, who haven’t cooked before or don’t like being told what to do by a girl, so you do get some interesting dynamics occasionally.”

There is also a league table of mother-watch jobs, with cleaning the heads (toilets) not surprisingly down in the relegation zone. As Richards reveals, however, there is worse.

“Doing the bilges (the lowest compartments on a ship, below the waterline, where the two sides meet at the keel) was worse than the heads – you had to do them every few hours and they stank," she contined. "It was a horrible, horrible job. You get bilge water all over you and when it’s hot it’s disgusting down there. You get quite a few people who suddenly feel seasick when it’s their turn; you could put money on it.”

Being below, however, could be a mixed blessing even when seemingly offering protection from foul weather. Ian Gerraghty, who also sailed the entire 2011-12 race, recalled: “We got hit by a rogue wave when I was in the middle of serving breakfast. It was traumatic for those on deck and down below the porridge just went everywhere, the galley just exploded.”

As with any group of people in a confined environment and sometimes testing conditions, the Clipper crews’ obsession with food is a constant feature of life – second only to the their standing in the race – and can lead to unexpected tensions.

Richards said: “People could get really funny and weird about really odd things. On one leg we only had enough fresh fruit for a week and a half and one guy had saved his last orange and another guy ate it. These were both men in the late forties, early fifties, really smart, intelligent guys having a massive fallout on deck because one had eaten the other’s orange.”

The new fleet features brand new yachts and a fresh batch of hundreds of volunteers, but as crew reports indicate the mother watch’s central part in boat life is undiminished.

Team Garmin’s Fred Johnstone clearly had the measure of his crew when he wrote: “Mothers often name the galley with cafe names. Ours was called ‘S**t Storm Café’ with our motto being ‘Leave your expectations at the door’. This gave us ample room to make excuses if our food was not up to scratch. However, surprisingly, everyone seemed to like the bangers and mash for lunch and even complimented the chicken curry for dinner. I suppose that goes to show that if you make room for excuses you will never need them.”

And he added: “There's a motto in Clipper - 'trim, trim, trim' - which reminds you to constantly trim the angle of your sails to go faster. In my case my motto was 'stir, stir, stir' as I watched that chicken stew like a hawk.’